Is It TNT Express That's Incompetent Or Just Their Staff?

COMMENT: TNT Express has got to be one of the most incompetent freight Companies in the world and if the progress of a simple parcel delivery across Sydney is anything to go by, this global Courier Company has major system problems or they employ staff who are totally incompetent.

With the advent of online deliveries freight companies like TNT have moved to capitalise on the boom in parcel deliveries but one has to question whether some companies actually have the systems in place to meet customer demands or are they employing staff who are poorly trained and really don't give a dam about customer service.

Back on the 13th of December we were advised that TNT was set to deliver a parcel to our Sydney Office and because all our staff were going to lunch we left a note for the TNT driver asking him to deliver the parcel to a coffee shop inside our office complex.

He chose to ignore the request.

On Monday the 16th we followed up with TNT and we were advised that the parcel would be delivered the next day. It failed to arrive, the same happened on the 17th, 18th and 19th despite a telephone call every day to the Companies customer service hotline to try and organise delivery.

We then asked TNT to deliver the parcel to another Sydney address as per their offer. We nominated a deliver on the 24th of December at an address near to our Sydney Office.

On the 20th of December we got a text message advising that that the parcel scheduled for delivery on the 24th was not able to be delivered on the 20th and had been returned to their depot.

When we followed up on the afternoon of the 20th to ask why a delivery was being made on the 20th and not the 24th we were told that there had been a mistake and that their system clearly said that the parcel was scheduled for delivery on the 24th.

Come the 24th of December 2013, you guessed it, this once proud Australian Company that is now Dutch owned and loves to brag about their global logistics and same day delivery services still managed to botch a simple delivery with the Company failing to turn up on the 24th of December, 11 days after they left a 'sorry we missed you note'.

A call to their customer service hotline resulted in an operator promising to call me back, they did only to ask "what is my problem" after explaining once again my dilemma they assured me that they would call back with new delivery information, I am still waiting.

A major supplier to the consumer electronics industry including Companies like Apple TNT Express is run by CEO, Bob Black in Australia, but even he was unavailable as according to his staff he "had left for his Xmas break".

A visit to several forums reveals that I am not alone in having problems with TNT and their incompetent systems. On the Whirlpool Forum KeV D also of Sydney wrote "Apple should ship orders with some other service than TNT".

Click to enlarge

Log file for missing parcel. The only time that our offices were not open was the 13th of December which is when a note was for TNT.

A TNT log for a simple parcel delivery. (The offices were occupied every day till the 19th).

His problem arose when he failed to get a new OS delivered on the day that TNT said they would deliver. They then failed to deliver it 48 hours later.

Ironically I got a delivery from China in 18 hours last week and it arrived when the Company said it would deliver.

Mail Call a local Company who are nowhere near the size of TNT also had a delivery for us out of hours, their driver called me and we organised an agreeable pick up time.

On the Product Reviews web site, several consumers have complained about TNT Express one consumer wrote "They were knocking on our door for like 3 seconds at 8:40am (Dec. 24) and before I can get up from my bed they are gone!! I booked the express shipping so my gift would reach us before Christmas. When I called the customer service the next possible shipping day is Friday and there's no way the driver can turn around. They ruined my surprise!"

Under the heading 'If I could give you a negative 5 stars I would' one consumer ranked the TNT Express service as "terrible"

Another consumer described TNT customer service staff as "useless".

She wrote "Because of their incompetence and failure to deliver their promise of "receiving my goods at the same time as the first delivery" we had 2 of us waste a whole day waiting and waiting and waiting. And let's not get me started on my 16 kg box been described as an envelope of 1 kg...... The whole day I was thinking someone as messed up my package. Everything was just wrong. You guys suck! In future I'd be using DHL or Star Track".